


Opposite Directions

by AStrangeDaze (TerraRising)



Category: Produce 101 (TV), Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Office, Enemies to Lovers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-05
Updated: 2017-10-05
Packaged: 2019-01-09 07:49:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12272064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TerraRising/pseuds/AStrangeDaze
Summary: Daniel is over the moon about his new internship until he meets his supervisor, then he's dreading the next six months.





	Opposite Directions

**Author's Note:**

> It's 2AM here so yes, technically this is late. It's been a frantic 2-3 days but I have no one else to blame but myself for procrastinating this piece.
> 
> But here it is! Day 3 of ETL week, un-beta'd and unproofread as always, from your's truly. Please excuse the typos and I hope this is less of a mess than I think it is. As always comments and feed back is much appreciated <3

Daniel sat down gingerly on one of the numerous plush leather chairs to the left of reception. He fiddled nervously with his new access pass, trying to look around without making it obvious that he was gawking at the sheer opulence of the building he was inside. 

 

When he had first applied for an internship at StoneTree Inc., he had never imagined they would ask him to move to their head offices in Seoul for the duration of his placement with them. It had been completely unexpected, a follow-up call at 7am the morning after his interview, asking how confident he was with his English skills. Daniel in his half-asleep state, filled with more confidence and frankness than self-preservation and good sense in the early hours, had shot back an affirmative in English. The HR representative had been silent for a moment before offering Daniel a place in their division in Seoul, stressing that it was a great opportunity and would be beneficial for his resume when he graduated at the end of the year. Daniel had agreed without thinking it through, without registering that _Seoul was not just a bike ride around the corner from Busan_ and the HR rep had assured him they would send him the details of the contract and accommodation for out of province employees through e-mail before wrapping up the call all business-like.

 

He freaks out, calling his mother with the news an hour later in his dorm room because he hasn't ever actually left Busan and now he's agreed to go to Seoul of all places based on his _English speaking skills_ and what was he thinking?! His mother had congratulated him, over the moon that her son had landed an internship at such a big company, and then reminded him that his cousin, Jisung, had moved to Seoul for work three years ago so he wasn't completely alone and though not close, it was just a three-hour train ride, he wasn't moving to a foreign country.

 

Now two weeks later, Daniel had dumped his haphazardly packed boxes into his brand new employee subsidized apartment and was sitting in what has to be one of the sleekest highrise buildings in Seoul. Every inch of it oozes modernist elegance, from the one-of-a-kind statue in the middle of the foyer to the rows of eco-friendly elevators. It's the farthest he's been from home in forever with everything around him screaming city life; he gulps and pastes on a smile that none of the numerous employees rushing to their posts notice, though Daniel' s not sure if he's grateful for the fact or not.

 

A thin waif of a boy who looks much too young to be employed takes a seat next to Daniel before the panic can set in, flashing him a nervous smile as he tugged on his lanyard.

 

"Hi,"  Daniel whispers, glad to have someone who seemed to be in the same situation as him to talk to, "Are you new too?"

 

The other boy nods, hair flopping back and forth against his forehead, "Yeah.”

 

“I'm Kang Daniel,” he offers.

 

"Nice to meet you, I'm Lee Daehwi."

 

Daniel' s brows furrow before he gasps, pointing at Daehwi incredulously in his shock, "You're the winner of the K-Design Award for newcomers this year!"

 

Daehwi flushes in embarrassment, hands held out in front of him and flapping helplessly, wishing Daniel's exclamation had been a bit quieter as some of their other fellow interns glance over their shoulders to stare and whisper as they too recognized Daehwi.

 

Daniel winced, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to say that so loud."

 

As he took in Daehwi' s growing discomfort at the attention he drops to a whisper, "I just get excited easily. I saw your designs for the portable staircase-to-ramp to promote accessibility, it was brilliant and I was rooting for you after you were nominated."

 

Daehwi hid his burning face behind his hands, peeking out from behind them briefly to give Daniel a quick grin. "Thank you! I'm really glad my design got acknowledged, I'm just not used to this attention. It's very daunting being accepted for this internship even though I'm a bit younger than the other applicants…."

 

He trails off for a moment but then seems to have found Daniel's open expression to be trustworthy as he confides in a low tone, " ...there's already been a couple of people in my department saying how I won the award because of connections...I didn’t want people saying I got into the company because of something like that too."

 

Puffing up with indignation on Daehwi's behalf, because truly the younger boy look so small admitting his fears and uncertainty that Daniel knows he' s already committed to protecting the younger boy from all harm after all of five minutes of meeting him, he throws an arm around Daewhi's shoulders protectively.

 

"Hey, don't let anyone tell you otherwise, your design was absolutely brilliant. You'll show all of those doubters that you got in here on your own merit and if anyone tries to give you a hard time, you let me know. These shoulders aren't just for show, yeah?" he ends with a joke, gratified when a smile graces the small boy's face.

 

"Thanks Daniel...can I call you hyung?"

 

"Of course you can!"  Daniel agrees happily, pulling Daehwi closer though careful not to wrinkle his suit jacket.

 

"Hey," another intern sitting behind them taps Daehwi on his shoulder, leaning back sheepishly when both Daniel and Daehwi turn to face him.

 

He' s got a small face that makes Daniel immediately think ulzzang and seems to have trouble looking either of them in the eye now that he's got their attention. "I-I didn't mean to eavesdrop. I just, um, I just wanted to say Daehwi-ssi, your designs were really good. I don't, um, I think those people are just jealous."

 

He speaks more to the floor and his own hastily shined shoes than to Daehwi, but the younger boy seems to appreciate it anyways. "Thanks!"  he chirps much more brightly now than he had been before, "That's really kind of you to say. I'm Lee Daehwi, but, well, you already knew that. What's your name?"

 

Their fellow intern fidgets, only glancing up briefly before ducking his head again with a squeak. "Bae Jinyoung," he ekes out, focusing on Daehwi after determining him as the less intimidating one of the two, "I'm interning here with the Business Development department."

 

"That's so cool!"  Daehwi exclaims encouragingly, with a glint in his eyes that let Daniel know that let Daniel know the newest addition to their conversation was not going to escape anytime soon, "I'm terrible with business, I tried taking it once as an elective and it wasn't for me at all. I'm here for Design, and uh,"

 

He turns to Daniel, head cocked to the side in question, "You too, right hyung?"

 

"Yeah," Daniel confirms, shooting the skittish Jinyoung his most disarming smile, "I don't have the same accolades to my name as Daehwi but I’m hoping they like me enough to keep me in the end."

 

"Don't doubt yourself hyung!" Daehwi scolds, "You deserve to be here just as much as anyone else and they're lucky to have you!"

 

Daniel smiles and accepts the younger boy's well-meaning words, trying his best to put away his growing nerves.

 

"Anyways," Daehwi continues conspiratorially, twisting in his seat so he could look at both of them at once, "Have you guys thought about who you want to work under? There are so many big names here, I think I' m going to faint when I run into them.”

 

Jinyoung laughs softly at Daehwi's dramatics and Daniel marvels at the difference a smile makes on the younger man's face, "I'm hoping to intern under Choi Minki," he admits, "He came to my uni as a guest speaker once and he's just so charismatic, you know? He’s StoneTree's lead negotiator and after just five minutes in the room with him, I could definitely tell why. I really hope I get to learn under him."

 

Daniel nods and then laughs as he gives his own response, “I don’t think I’ll find them here, but I’m a huge fan of OSW’s designs. I’m hoping they will come out of hiding soon, and who knows, maybe someone here knows them, or I’ll walk past them and never realize.”

 

"I don’t think _anyone_ knows who OSW really is, but I’ve heard of Choi Minki! He' s sometimes next to StoneTree's PR agent during press conferences.” Daehwi nods along enthusiastically, leaning closer as if he's disclosing some great secret, "I’m hoping I'll get to be on Kang Dongho sunbae' s team."

 

Jinyoung gapes at Daehwi' s confession. "Kang Dongho-ssi?! I've only see him a few times on interviews and a couple of pictures when he was featured in that article last year, he looks intimidating..."

 

Daehwi laughs, hands flapping in front of his face again, as if Jinyoung finding the renowned designer Kang Dongho to be intimidating was silly, "I thought the same as well, but he's a friend of one of my professors so I was able to meet him a few times. He's really intense and dedicated to his work, but Dongho sunbae-nim is one of the kindest people you'll ever meet."

 

"Oho," a voice behind them drawls, the unknown voice interrupts their friendly conversation as a young man with a sharp grin on an otherwise handsome face cuts in, "You've got some connections I see. Must be nice."

 

Immediately Daehwi's previously animated expression shuts down, and Daniel decides there and then that he doesn’t like this other guy much.

 

The stranger sneers at the three of them before a mockery of a friendly smile stretches across his face; if Daniel hadn't been watching the transformation before his very eyes, if he hadn't heard the insinuation in his tone, he might have fallen for the lie.

 

“You'd best hope you guys don't get stuck interning under Ong Seongwoo," the other announces, plopping down on the armrest and nearly Daniel's arm had he not yanked it out of the way quickly, making himself at home as if he wasn't intruding, "I heard he's a hardass and last year, half the interns under him quit within a month, and the rest could be seen having breakdowns in the stairwells. An upperclassman of mine worked in the same department but under a secondary group and he swears that man is a demon."

 

His words had Jinyoung shrinking into himself, though whether that was because the wild rumours scared him or if Jinyoung was just intensely uncomfortable with the new boy's presence, Daniel wasn't sure. Daehwi had a little frown on his face and though his lips twisted in apparently displeasure at the effect of the other's words on Jinyoung, he didn't say anything to refute the gossip.

 

"Could all the interns please gather on the south side of the lobby?" a voice called, thankfully interrupting them before the other could spout more of his purposefully unnerving words.

 

Daniel got up and shared a look with Daehwi and Jinyoung before they made their way towards the figure waiting with a clipboard, Daniel silently slotting himself in a position so that he was between that malicious boy and his new friends. A quick count showed that there were almost twenty interns; Daniel was surprised until he reminded himself that StoneTree was the largest design and architectural firm in Korea. With so many departments, it wasn't really a surprise that they took in a larger amount of interns each year than other companies might.

 

The figure standing there waiting for them looked up from his clipboard with a welcoming smile; he was on the shorter side and Daniel easily stood a head over him but something in the way he carried himself warned them that he was formidable in his own right.

 

"Welcome to the head office of StoneTree,"  the man begins, looking around to make eye contact with them all, "My name is Ha Sungwoon. I'm the HR co-ordinator for your year group. Now that you've all gotten your access passes, let's start on the tour. Please keep in mind not to lose your access passes, as there will be a fee to replace it if you do misplace them. Your pass doubles as a keycard that allows you to access the different floors; in the event that you do lose your pass, please report it to reception immediately to prevent a security breach."

 

Sungwoon waits for them all to acknowledge his words before he nods and motions for them to follow him towards the elevators. He gives them a tour of all the common areas in the building and run down of all the different floors, noting off-hand which floors belonged to them exclusively, and which floors had been rented out to other companies. Daniel's head feels scrambled by all the information that Sungwoon rattles off so easily within the two-hour tour and he's beyond impressed by how efficient their co-ordinator was.

 

Their tour ends off in the canteen which boasted cuisine from around the world, and looked classier than the resteraunts in some of the five-star hotels Daniel had seen. Sungwoon had explained that the mental well-being and health of their employees was of utmost important to StoneTree, and it showed in the design of everything, from the abundant food selection to the numerous rest areas filled with greenery set up with the goal of promoting relaxation and creativity.

 

Even now, their guide flashes them another practiced smile that managed to feel totally genuine, "So now that you guys know where everything is, I'm going to drop you guys off here. Since it's your first day, you have a two-hour lunch break. Take the time to explore a little, eat, get to know each other; how you want to spend your next six months with us if entirely up to you, so I'd suggest making it the most fulfilling experience that you can.

 

“All of our employees are more than open to chat during their down time, so don't be afraid of approaching someone and asking a question; we want this to be a learning experience, not just a working one. My office is on the sixth floor; once you're done, please come meet me there at 1 pm and I'll take you to the departments you've been assigned to. Enjoy!"

 

They disperse slowly, Daniel and his friends walking over to thank Sungwoon for taking them around and the shorter man beams and tells them how much he appreciates their thanks and not to hesitate to come find him throughout their stay here if they had questions. The three boys bow and then take their leave, splitting up quickly to grab food and Daniel is still in awe that they get to eat for _free_ so he doesn't hesitate to order enough food for three people. The man serving him blinks twice but doesn't comment, giving Daniel two trays and warning him not to drop it all on his way back.

 

Daniel thanks him with a wide grin and turns carefully, making his way over to where Daehwi has seated himself and is waving wildly to catch Daniel's attention. The younger boy's eyes bug out at the sight of the feast Daniel has lugged back, only for them to nearly pop out of their sockets by the end of lunch when Daniel finishes every last bite and still looks ready to go back for dessert.

 

"Where do you put all that, hyung?" he asks, fascinated as he poke at Daniel' s trim waistline.

 

Daniel just laughs, a bit embarrassed that they had witnessed his eating habits, "I work out a lot. And dance. I'm so used to exercising I guess my metabolism is higher than most people's, so I eat a lot."

 

Jinyoung just stares at all the empty dishes and then back at Daniel, "That's still kind of amazing, hyung," he comments, having picked up the address from Daehwi when they found out Jinyoung was one year younger than Daniel, while Daehwi was his junior by a whole two years.

 

"Anyways, what was I saying?"  Daehwi continues, looking up from his inspection of Daniel's bottomless stomach, "Oh yes, I was chatting a bit with some of the other interns and I don't know if it's actually true or not, but there's some pretty bad rumours circulating about that supervisor that awful boy from before was warning us about."

 

"Hong Seongwoo?"  Daniel asked, taking a sip of water, curious.

 

"Mm yeah, I think but his last name was...Gong? Gong Seongwoo?" Daehwi shakes his head and snags a bite of the last remainders of Jinyoung' s cake, already ridiculously comfortable in the other's presence for having known him for all of half a day, "Something like that. But yeah, people are saying that he's a total perfectionist? And that he's a manwhore."

 

Daniel almost spits his water out at how casually Daehwi announces the last part, "He's a _what_?"

 

"Oh, sorry,"  Daehwi flushes red, the colour obvious on him given how pale his skin was, "I was just repeating what the others were whispering, I didn't realize. Um, apparently he' s seduced a whole bunch of people and broke up two engaged couples? I'm really not sure, you know how rumours are.”

 

Daniel nods slowly, checking to make sure he didn't spit water all over his shirt and taking another careful sip to soothe his throat. "Yeah, it's not fair to judge someone like that," he chooses his words carefully, "Who knows. Maybe it's all rumours that kid went around spreading."

 

"True," Daehwi acknowledges, " And I think Dongho sunbae-nim mentioned him before, if they're friends I don't think he could be that horrible of a person."

 

Jinyoung doesn't voice an actual comment but nods his agreement; he' s drifted between being comfortable with Daniel and Daehwi and clamming up again all day so they just leave him be, hoping he'll be more comfortable with them soon. They gather up their empty plates and return the trays, heading to one of the rec areas Sungwoon had showed the earlier.

 

* * *

 

 

They kill half an hour playing video games, still marveling over the fact that their company had a rec room, or rather several. There are a couple of other actual employees loitering around, chatting, some of them watching two middle-aged men play a competitive game of foosball.

 

“Fucking, I hate that man!”

 

The loud exclamation has the trio looking up from their game to see a man not too much older than them storm into the room and throw himself heavily onto one of the electric blue couches. Immediately a couple of the spectators detach themselves from the foosball game and drift over to comfort him.

 

“What’s it this time, Jae?” a bespectacled man wearing a sweater vest that shouldn’t look as flattering as it did asks, sitting next to his fuming colleague.

 

“I spent three weeks working on that design,” he hisses, clearly uncaring that he had an audience, “He took one look at it, flipped through my proposal in less than five minutes and then rejected it, said it was ‘structurally unsound’ or some shit, and told me to redo the entire thing _by Friday_. That draft took me three weeks, how does he expect me to complete something to his majesty’s liking by the end of the week?”

 

“Aw, come on Jae,” his friend cajoled, “It’s not the first time, you know how Seongwoo is about things. He just forgets that other people don’t live in the office like he does.”

 

A man in a striped dress shirt snorts, laughing meanly, “Yeah, he works, lives, and breathes in the office, fucks in it too. Why would he remember there’s a life outside of it.”

 

Glasses scowls at him, baring his teeth briefly, “Don’t be crude Wonjun, bitterness doesn’t suit you.”

 

The newly named Wonjun sneers, “You’re just defending him because you want to get into his pants, Hyunbin, don’t think I don’t know. Why you want to be another in his long line of conquests...che.”

 

He leaves with a scoff and the trio watches as Hyunbin rolls his eyes behind his glasses and turns his attention back to the sulking man on the couch. “Don’t be so down Jaehyun, I’ll come with you and take a look over your proposal. Two pairs of eyes are better than one, we’ll pinpoint what Seongwoo was talking about so you don’t have to redo everything from scratch, hm?”

 

Jaehyun looked at him with clear relief in his eyes, standing with a groan, “Thanks Hyunbin, I don’t know what I’d do without your help sometimes. Seriously, how do you stand working with him?”

 

Hyunbin just laughs and ushers Jaehyun out of the room, a comforting hand on his shoulder, “He’s really not that bad once you get to know him, honest. But he _is_ no nonsense so everyone cringing away and walking on eggshells on the time just sets off his temper.”

 

Once they disappeared from view, Daniel turned his gaze to Daehwi and Jinyoung who looked just as intrigued as he felt. “Do you think…” Daehwi whispers, eyes darting around the room to see if others were paying attention to their conversation, “He said ‘Seongwoo’, do you think it’s the same supervisor?”

 

“Maybe,” Jinyoung hedges hesitantly, “I mean, unless there are several people that have the same name and whom people don’t like...but redoing a three-week proposal in five days, I don’t think I could live with that pressure.”

 

“Hey, hey,” Daniel jumps in when Jinyoung starts to squirm and duck his head uncertainly, “Don’t worry about it, it doesn’t sound like he was in Business Development, don’t fret, yeah? Let’s head back to Sungwoon-ssi’s office now, it’s almost 1 pm and we don’t want to be late.”

 

The two younger men agree easily, shutting off the console and placing the controllers back where they found them. They shuffle out of the room and into an elevator to the 6th floor, stopping to ask a harried-looking young woman for directions to Sungwoon’s desk. It takes a while for the rest of the interns to gather there, but Sungwoon is happy to chat with those who ask him questions even as he keeps a sharp eye on exactly who was tardy.

 

Jinyoung gets dropped off first on the fifth floor with the Business Development unit, although his manager isn’t Choi Minki, he _is_ their team’s direct supervisor and that seems to be enough to make Jinyoung grin ear to ear as he greets his manager politely. A couple of the others are lead to the 10th floor for production and the 9th floor for accounts. Then Sungwoon is taking them all the way up to the twenty-third floor where he ushers Daehwi and Daniel forward with a grin.

 

“And here we have Design,” he announces, “It’s more than this floor as I mentioned before, of course, but the leads you guys are under are usually here. Dongho-ssi!”

 

A large bear of a man with a five o’clock shadow looks up from where he was bent over several blueprints, the action has his muscles rippling under his dress shirt. His sleeves are rolled up past his forearms and Daniel thinks he spies the edges of a tattoo peeking through. Dongho’s stare is intense, the sort that would cow any lesser man or woman, the sort that threatens to strip your soul of any lies and secrets and Daniel gulps, smiling nervously and wondering how on earth Daehwi could look at this intimidating specimen and think ‘welcoming’ and ‘friendly’.

 

“Yes?” he asks, even his voice was gruff, Daniel notes.

 

“Daehwi here is an intern that has been assigned to your team,” Sungwoon turns to flash an encouraging smile at Daehwi, barely masking his surprise when the young man doesn’t seem intimidated at all but rather _eager_ , “Please take good care of him.”

 

Dongho looks at Daehwi who’s practically vibrating in his spot and then he grins, the action has Daniel stumped because in that moment Dongho looks more like a proud father than a gangster that could beat you silly with his pinky finger alone. “Daehwi-ah,” he calls familiarly, gesturing the other to come closer and ruffling his hair affectionately, “Good to see you again, you got new designs for me to look at?”

 

Daehwi nods earnestly, opening his mouth to babble about his newest ideas at an indulgent looking Dongho. Sungwoon turns back to their remaining group with a chagrined smile given how unexpectedly smooth that meeting had gone. He scans the room, looking for someone else and motions for them to follow him further into the floor.

 

“Seongwoo-ssi!” he calls out, striding towards the back.

 

Daniel looks around intently to see who responds, but no one does. A petite young woman wearing large daisy earrings pops her head out from her work station and waves Sungwoon over. “Oppa,” she calls sweetly, “Chief is on the phone with one of the freelancers, I think he’s almost done though.”

 

“Ah, thank you Chaeyeon,” Sungwoon nods in her direction and she goes back to her task after sending the interns a quick wave, “Let’s wait for Seongwoo by his office then.”

 

They troop towards a corner of the floor pressed right up against floor-length windows. Everyone around them appears to be intensely focused on their work, barely even twitching even as their relatively large group brushed past them.

 

“....no I don’t care if you’re going to ‘kill yourself’ getting this done, your contract with us states that you  were supposed to submit your final outline to me this morning and it’s still not here. You have until 5pm today or I’m going to start docking your pay for a breach in your contract with us.”

 

Standing at his desk with a phone pressed to his ear is a man dressed in a blazer that probably costs more than Daniel’s entire wardrobe. He’s tall, lithe, and when he turns around as if sensing their presence, Daniel has to add devastatingly handsome to the list. At the moment however a scowl mars his face, although he does flash Sungwoon a quick smile before going back to his argument.

 

Daniel fidgets nervously, waiting for this man to finish up and hoping that if he was the infamous Seongwoo, he wouldn’t end up on his team. Five minutes later, the man slams the receiver down with a triumphant smirk before turning to Sungwoon, “So, what brings you to my corner of the world?”

 

“Well,” Sungwoon nudges Daniel forward, unaware that the other was mentally screaming, “I have someone here for you to meet.”

 

Seongwoo glances at Daniel, somehow managing to look down his nose at him despite Daniel being slightly taller, and sneers. “I thought we agreed no interns for me this year, give him to someone else.”

 

“Uh uh uh,” Sungwoon waggles his finger, “You know that’s not how it works! You have the capacity and the expertise, the company would like you to pass on your skills and knowledge.”

 

“It’s going to take six months just to train him so he’s not a complete waste of space,” Seongwoo declares, eyeing Daniel dismissively in a way that has Daniel’s hackles rising in indignation, “And then he’ll leave, wasting my time entirely. Just give me a new one to train, at least then I’ll get my coffee order properly for the next year or so.”

 

Daniel glowers at the man arguing with Sungwoon; how dare he underestimate Daniel and dismiss him as being a good-for-nothing coffee boy or personal gopher? Daniel rakes his eyes over this Seongwoo; a sharp tongue, prickly attitude, lack of common courtesy, and the rumours about him using his face to sleep around was properly true too. The man knew he looked attractive and dressed to his advantage. With that sneer almost permanently etched on his face, Daniel didn’t doubt the gossip regarding his less than stellar personality for one second now.

 

So caught up in his inner monologue, Daniel misses the words that Seongwoo directs towards him, not even realizing the older man was talking to him until Sungwoon nudged his elbow lightly.

 

“......you got that, rookie?”

 

“Huh?” Daniel questions before he can stop himself and Seongwoo rolls his eyes, disgusted.

 

“Just had to give me the dumb one,” he muttered under his breath though Daniel heard it loud and clear and scowls.

 

Seongwoo pulls open one of his drawers and then pulls something out, a yellowing tome labeled ‘Rules and Code of Conduct’ that he thrusts at Daniel. “Read it,” he instructs, not even glancing at Daniel anymore, halfway through dialling a number to make another call, “You can do that much, right _rookie_?”

 

Daniel looks down at the rulebook that had to be the size of a dictionary and scowled at Seongwoo’s perfectly coiffured hair, biting back a retort only because Sungwoon and the rest of his year-mates were still here. He sits down heavily at an empty desk with his newly assigned task and glares daggers at Seongwoo’s back when he’s certain the other is faced the other way. Flipping open the book, he sneezes wildly when the action sends dust particles everywhere into the air and continues to glare at the man who would get to boss him around for the next six months.

 

He hated him already.

 

* * *

 

He spends his first day at work reading that damned manual until his eyes started to see double. At some point, Kang Dongho had ambled over with Daehwi in tow to introduce his intern to Seongwoo. Daniel peeks up from his task to see a surprisingly warm smile on his supervisor’s face as he greeted Dongho, looking upon Daehwi kindly and congratulating him for the recent win.

 

Of course, Daniel sneers to himself, Seongwoo was only putting on a façade because Daehwi had won the K-Design Award, what a snake. He watches as Daehwi flushes under the attention, stammering slightly as he answered Seongwoo’s questions and wills his friend not to fall for Seongwoo’s tricks. As if on cue, Seongwoo gestures over to where Daniel is sitting at his new and very empty desk, giving Daehwi an encouraging nod when he asks to go speak with Daniel.

 

“Hey,” Daehwi grins at Daniel, bounding over excitedly, “How’s your day been so far?”

 

Daniel glances over to make sure that his supervisor’s attention was still on his conversation with Kang Dongho and lets out a long suffering groan. “Terrible,” he gripes, slumping over his desk despondently, “He doesn’t want me here and he told me I’m dumb, like, straight to my face.”

 

Daehwi frowns, casting a quick glance behind them, “Are you- are you sure? Seongwoo-ssi seems really kind, and Dongho sunbae-nim told me he-“

 

“All I’ve been doing is reading this crappy rulebook for the past four hours,” Daniel cuts him off, shoving the book away from himself in disgust, “If this is what the rest of my internship is like, then I might just be better off quitting.”

 

“Well if that’s the case,” a voice chimes in and Daniel jumps, eyes wide with shock and dread as he takes in Seongwoo standing behind an equally frozen Daehwi, expression mild as if he was discussing the weather, “you can just walk yourself straight to the exit then. We don’t have time to waste on people who are unmotivated and don’t actually want to be here.”

 

“I-I,” he stammered out, falling silent under the unforgiving gaze of his supervisor.

 

The cutting gaze of Ong Seongwoo was a terrible thing to behold, it left Daniel feeling small and unworthy, and he hated the fact that this man held the power to make him feel badly about himself so easily. He hated himself for being caught unaware by him so easily on the first day when already knowing the type of person his supervisor was.

 

Seongwoo seems to take his silence as an admission of guilt and lets his gaze slide away like glancing rain, turning to Daehwi instead, friendly in a way that had Daniel’s lips twisting at the pretence. “Daehwi-ssi, you’ve worked hard today. I look forward to working with you in the coming months. There will be a welcoming party for the interns at the end of the week, you’ll join us for the dinner, yes?”

 

Daehwi nods, eyes darting between Seongwoo and Daniel who was being deliberately left out of the conversation. “Yes! Of course! I’m looking forward to working with you too, sunbae!”

 

If anything, his eager declaration has Seongwoo’s mask looking even more charmed and he reaches over to ruffle Daehwi’s hair. Daniel barely manages not to reach out and slap that hand away from his friend’s hair. “You’ve got a good one here,” Seongwoo remarks to Dongho who grins proudly.

 

“Drinks tonight?” Dongho offers.

 

“Yeah,” Seongwoo’s eyes drift towards Daniel minutely, “I’m going to need it.”

 

Daniels clenches his fist, just barely keeping a smile on his face when both of his seniors turn to look at him. Seongwoo’s lips twist, the first real emotion Daniel sees on his face, “You’re dismissed. And if you don’t feel like bothering to show up tomorrow, I’ll let HR know you quit because you would be better off not working here.”

 

Daniel gapes at his retreating back as Seongwoo strides away, clapping Daehwi on the shoulder briefly after exchanging a nod with Dongho and heading back to his desk. He turns to look at Daehwi who’s staring at him with wide eyes but doesn’t say anything with his mentor standing right there. Dongho stares at Daniel in silence for a moment before he let out an inaudible sigh and shook his head. “Look kid, I know Seongwoo can be a bit tough on people, but you might want to readjust your attitude, yeah? Talking about quitting already on the first day, that’s not the kind of talent we’re looking to develop here at StoneTree. First days are tough, I get that, but you’re going to have to shape up if you plan on staying.”

 

He taps Daniel’s arm lightly in reprimand before leaving as well, “You can pack up too, Daehwi-ah. I’ll leave you to catch up with your friend.”

 

“Okay sunbae!” Daehwi calls with a bow, “I’ll see you tomorrow. Have a good night!”

 

Once Dongho is out of earshot, Daehwi turned back to Daniel, biting his lip with incredulity in his eyes, “So…”

 

“You see what I mean?” Daniel hisses, arms flailing in his distress, “He’s terrible! God, I wish I was under Dongho sunbae-nim as well. Ong Seongwoo just thinks he’s a big shot because he works here and he’s petty as hell. Saying that! And in front of, urgh! Now even Dongho sunbae-nim thinks I’m a terrible person.”

 

“Hey, hey, no, don’t freak out!” Daehwi hurries to reassure him, “Sunbae isn’t the type to judge harshly based on first impressions, you’re fine. I think Seongwoo-ssi just has high standards and him walking over at the wrong time didn’t help. I’m sure if you just show him that you got this internship based on your skills, then you guys will get along fine.”

 

“That’s easy for you to say,” Daniel grumbles, stuffing his water bottle into his bag and hefting it over his shoulder as he made to follow Daehwi back to the other’s desk, “He took one look at you, saw K-Design Award winner, and treats you like an actual person.”

 

He cringes when Daehwi shoots him a slightly wounded look for bringing up his award, “Fuck, sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. Just, he seems like the type of person to judge, like, the type you were worried about before, okay?”

 

Daehwi drags the tip of his shoe along the ground as he packs up, not looking up from his task. “It’s fine. Just. Give this internship a chance, okay? Maybe you’re writing Seongwoo sunbae-nim off too quickly.”

 

“Uh-huh,” Daniel answers sceptically but doesn’t bother arguing with Daehwi; the other boy wouldn’t understand, he didn’t have to work under that asshole for the next six months.

 

“Anyways,” Daehwi declares more brightly, “Let’s go find Jinyoung and see how his day went. If you’re up for it, we could all grab dinner together?”

 

Daniel smiles at the mention of food, “Sounds good! Let’s hurry before Jinyoung leaves without us knowing.”

 

* * *

 

The next day isn’t any better, in fact, it’s worse if anything else.

 

Seongwoo doesn’t even look at him before waving a member of his team over to “show the rookie what to do”. Daniel follows, glad he doesn’t have to spend more time than necessary in the same space as the arrogant man and happy that he wasn’t relegated to reading that manual again.

 

Or he was until he realizes he’s been assigned to sort through the designs created by Seongwoo’s team over the past year. It’s tedious and monotonous, in fact, Daniel doesn’t even quite know _how_ their filing system works until one of his team members take pity on him and walks him through each of the cabinets they have.

 

It takes a second for Daniel to recognize him without his glasses, but he realizes after a few minutes that this was the man defending Seongwoo in the rec room yesterday. He introduces himself as Kwon Hyunbin, he’s worked with Seongwoo for three years now, he tells Daniel in-between explaining the filing system.

 

“If you have any other questions, don’t hesitate to ask, okay?” the tall man offers with a smile, “I know things can be confusing at first, but don’t worry, you’ll get the hang of it.”

 

Daniel nods his thanks and steels himself for a boring day of shoving papers into folders. He doesn’t know how long he spends in that stuffy room until Hyunbin pops his head in and reminds Daniel to go for lunch. He goes quickly, grateful for something to change up his listless day.

 

He joins Daehwi and Jinyoung in the canteen, content to let their chatter wash over him with nothing much of his own to add. Jinyoung is much more animated today, gushing about how _the_ Choi Minki had called him into his office this morning to chat and make sure Jinyoung was comfortable with his assigned place in the department. Daniel could see literal stars in the younger man’s eyes as he expounded on how wonderful and witty and considerate his department head was.

 

If only his supervisor was half as considerate, Daniel thinks bitterly, returning to his post after lunch break.

 

Thirty minutes of filing and Daniel is yawning, the combination of a full stomach, a tedious task, and the warmth in the enclosed room has his eyes drooping and before he knows it, he nods off against one of the shelves.

 

He’s unceremoniously jolted awake from his light doze when the door is slammed opened and an utterly unimpressed Ong Seongwoo stares at him from the doorway. “Sleeping on the job then,” he deadpans, dropping another stack of papers heavily unto the cart provided to Daniel earlier, “Such exemplary behaviour. I’m sure your mid-term report will only be filled with glowing recommendations of how well you adapt so _comfortably_ to new environments.”

 

He leaves before Daniel has a chance to defend himself, leaving the younger man gnashing his teeth, barely holding back from punching a cabinet in his anger. As much as he hated to admit it, this was mostly his fault; as shitty as his task was, falling asleep was improper and Daniel kicked himself for giving Seongwoo more ammunition against him. Slapping himself lightly on his cheeks to promote blood flow, Daniel forces himself awake, determined to tackle his task.

 

He’d show Ong Seongwoo he was more than what he thought he was.

 

Somehow determination, or what his friends would call sheer pig-headedness, allowed him to mow through his take within the next three hours. Elated at his own success and hoping to leave this task behind forever and ever, Daniel almost skipped out of the filing room to report his completion of the task to his supervisor.

 

He checks the man’s desk first, only to find it empty. Seeing him hover, one of his team members rolls over on their chair with a tired smile, bright red hair a shock of colour against the neutral toned cubicle walls, “If you’re looking for the Chief, he’s in the service area. I think he’s grabbing coffee.”

 

Puzzled as to why Seongwoo hadn’t just sent someone else to fetch him coffee, Daniel nods and wanders towards the service station, hoping he was going in the right direction. As he draws closer, he hears Seongwoo’s voice and quickens his steps, only to stop in utter disbelief at the brazen scene before him when he rounds the corner.

 

A young woman, the same one who had told Sungwoon-ssi where Seongwoo had been yesterday was crouched in front of the man, her face incriminatingly close to his crotch with that bastard’s hands in her hair. Daniel splutters, feeling his face flush, before he turns and hightails it out of there. He’s utterly disgusted at how far the other man was willing to go in public no less.

 

* * *

 

Seongwoo turns at the choked noise behind him to catch only a glimpse of Daniel’s form. He dismisses it, the new intern was proving to be a waste of space so far, and turns back to Chaeyeon. “I think we might have to snip a few strands,” he tells her regretfully, picking at where her hair had gotten hopelessly tangled in the fob attached to his access pass, “Are you okay with that?”

 

Chaeyeon just laughs at the sheer ridiculousness of their situation. “Next time, I’m not going to pretend to be polite, you can pick up your own creamers, Butterfingers” she jokes, “It’s fine, just a few strands, no one will notice.”

 

Seongwoo nods even though she can’t really see it and carefully unclips his pass from his belt so it didn’t pull on her hair, handing it over to her. “I’ll go grab some scissors, hang on. And if you need to get a haircut to even this out, it’s on me!” he calls as he hurries over to borrow scissors from Jihoon’s desk.

 

Between the two of them, Chaeyeon only loses a negligible length of hair, though the girl still threatens to charge him for an entire makeover just to make up for it. Seongwoo shrugs with a grin, he has no qualms footing that bill, even recommending a stylish he knows, adding she needs a makeover anyways and dancing out of the way of her incensed swat with a laugh.

 

“Keep that up and I’ll have you footing the bill for a personal stylist!” she warns.

 

“Your fiancé will thank me!” Seongwoo teases back before snagging the two cups of coffe and returning to his desk.

 

“Here,” he drops one off at Youngmin’s desk, “You look like you need it.”

 

“Thanks Chief,” the younger man takes it gratefully with both hands and a cheeky grin, “The great Ong Seongwoo getting me coffee, I must be blessed.”

 

Seongwoo just rolls his eyes, flipping his subordinate and friend off. “Can’t have you passing out on me before the deadline now, can I?”

 

“Still putting up that front?” Youngmin asks, amused, “You can act as prickly as you want, Seongwoo, none of us buy it anymore.”

 

The young supervisor rolls his eyes, downing half his coffee in one go. “Oh no,” he deadpans, “You’ve seen through my disguise, whatever shall I do?”

 

“Not terrify the newbie?” the redhead offers, spinning around in his office chair.

 

“He does look like he’s sufficiently panicked, Chief,” Hyunbin chimes in, walking over to steal Seongwoo’s coffee for himself.

 

Seongwoo lets him, well used to the liberties his hoobae takes with him at this point. It was interesting almost how the other man seems to eat more when he steals it off other people, enough so that Seongwoo makes a point of wandering past him ‘eating’ food when the other man doesn’t look like he’s going to remember to feed himself.

 

“He’s been utterly unmotivated so far,” Seongwoo complains, “He spaces out and he’s lazy. He doesn’t take any initiative to ask questions, or show that he wants to learn at all. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with him, I told Sungwoon no interns this year!”

 

“He’s still a kid,” Hyunbin points out, snagging a handful of trail-mix from the bowl on Seongwoo’s desk as well and popping it into his mouth, chewing obnoxiously, “He’s not used to learning the way that you teach. We’ve just got to point some thing out to him.”

 

“I’m not here to spoon-feed him answers!” Seongwoo retorts, gesturing for Hyunbin to feed him some of the trail-mix as well as he sorts through the last couple of proposals to end up on his desk which the other does easily, “It’s a self-directed learning environment! I don’t have time to check-in on all the things he knows or doesn’t know; everyone is up to their eyeballs with deadlines, I can’t ask you guys to take time out of your day either. He should be speaking up and asking questions. I had him go through all the past designs from this year so that he’d be up to date on the current standards and trends, and he doesn’t even look at a single one with an iota of interest. No questions, doesn’t study the material in front of him that other people would be dying to get their hands on; just shoves it in a cabinet and takes a fucking _nap_. It’s disgraceful!”

 

“Hey,” Youngmin jumps in, laying a hand on his supervisor and friend’s knee, “It’s fine. He’s young, he’ll learn. We’ll all have more time after the plans for Laurent & Co. are finalized and presented on Friday; next week, we’ll take turns putting him through the paces. It’ll work out.”

 

Seongwoo nods reluctantly, “Alright. Let’s hope he wizens up. Now, for this element here, I was thinking we’ve done too many designs like that before, it doesn’t stand out. How about we….”

 

* * *

 

Daniel recounts his story to a scandalized Daehwi and Jinyoung, and though the youngest still holds reservations based on the confidence his mentor has in his friend, they all eventually agree that Ong Seongwoo is bad news. Strangely enough, it seems that with that confirmation, everywhere Daniel turns there’s a juicy rumour about Seongwoo’s escapades, or complaints about his tyranny. None of them come from his team, but Daniel rationalizes that it’s likely due to a sense of self-preservation.

 

No one working under him would want it to get back to Seongwoo their true feelings, look at how Daniel ended up. He’s shunted from one thankless task to another, grunt work even though he’s itching to play with the state-of-the-art design programs or even just pick up a pencil and sketch. It’s not until his second week that his team members have a chance to work out a rotational system, letting him job shadow them and assigning tasks from their own workload to him after careful explanation of what he needs to do.

 

Daniel barely sees Seongwoo one-on-one after that, the other man seemingly content to let his team do his job for him. He stops by every now and then to survey Daniel’s progress, hovering over his shoulder silently like some unwanted phantom, but he always drifts away after a couple of minutes and then Daniel can breathe again.

 

For the most part, Daniel doesn’t mind the lack of interaction all that much either. He looks at the latest person to get chewed out by his supervisor with pity, they didn’t deserve to be treated with so little respect, so what if Seongwoo was the boss?

 

One day, he thinks to himself, one day someone was going to stand up to that bully and he’d be in for a rude awakening.

 

* * *

 

 

Seongwoo cradled his head heavily between his palms, feeling a headache building at his temples already even though it was barely even noon. A soft knock has him looking up to see Minhyun bearing two coffees and a box of pastries from their favourite bakery.

 

“Rough day?” he asks, handing over the goods and laughing lowly as Seongwoo made grabby hands in his direction.

 

Taking a deep pull of the nectar of the gods, Seongwoo moans in appreciation, flashing an almost dopey grin at his best friend. “You, sir, are a gift,” he announces, saluting Minhyun sloppily with the cup.

 

“And you looks five seconds to falling apart,” Minhyun remarks, settling himself on the edge of Seongwoo’s desk and nudging the box of pastries closer, “Wanna tell me what’s wrong? What terrible thoughts are running amok in that pretty head of your’s?”

 

“I need to file a complaint with Sungwoon,” Seongwoo tells him while ripping into a croissant, “I swear that there’s no way Jaehyun actually earned his degree. It’s like that man doesn’t understand safety regulations! Everything he brings me are pretty pieces of garbage that are massive disasters waiting to happen. Who forgets about _load bearing_ when _designing a bridge?!_ ”

 

Minhyun winces in sympathy, “That’s the fifth time you’ve told me about him, maybe HR does need to do a review.”

 

“Oh, do they ever,” Seongwoo snorts, “That intern they set up on my team is incompetent too. I don’t know what pretty words he put on his cover letter, or how he charmed the interviewers; I’ve never met an intern doesn’t even bother to seize the opportunities given to him. He’s so rude and unmotivated it _pains me_ , Minhyun. Every time I stop by to see if he’s got any questions, he just ignores me and wastes my time. He doesn’t take the initiative on anything and he can’t seem to do anything without prompting even though he’s got the skills, he just sits there and rots like a lump. It’s been nearly three months; I don’t even know why I bother anymore.”

 

His friend pats the top of his head in sympathy and Seongwoo lets himself lean into the touch as Minhyun’s clever fingers chases his headache away. “You know,” Minhyun adds mildly, “Not everyone thrives under the same conditions, and most people’s brains don’t spin as fast as your’s; don’t take it personally. I can’t solve your Jaehyun problem, but maybe your intern is just the type that’s going to need a lot of guidance. Take the time to reach out and talk to him, explain what your expectations for him are, and then ask him what he wants out of this internship.”

 

Seongwoo pouts at Minhyun pitifully and the other man only shoves at him with a laugh. “Go!”

 

“Urgh,” Seongwoo throws up his arms in surrender, “One day, I’m going to find out who started spoon feeding the next generation and I’m going to push them down several flights of stairs!”

 

“Stop making it sound like you’re a middle-aged geezer, Seong-ah,” Minhyun scolds, “You’re barely over thirty, there is not an entire generation between you and the intern.”

 

“It _feels_ like a generation,” Seongwoo insists stubbornly, “Why, back in my day-”

 

“Stop, stop!” the other man calls out before his friend can descend into dramatics again, “I get it, you’re ancient and miserable, and if anyone asks I’m the younger and more handsome friend.”

 

“Lies!” Seongwoo hisses, “Lies and slander! I’m the better looking one.”

 

“Uh huh, better do something about those rumours too, oh good looking one. Because apparently last Thursday, you screwed two people in the break room at once, and also gave head to some higher up for a promotion.”

 

Minhyun watches as Seongwoo’s face twists in contempt. “That man just doesn’t stop, does he?” he asks, disgusted, “You’d think we’d be above petty rumour mongering like this.”

 

“He’s hated you since you won that first competition over him since way back in second-year university,” Minhyun reminds him, “He’s followed you to three different companies, every time spreading lies like a disease, poisoning everyone he can reach against you. I’m telling you, Han Jongyeon’s obsession with you is unnatural and dangerous; he’s doing everything he can to ruin you and you need to put a stop to this.”

 

Seongwoo opens his mouth to protest but lets his words die in his throat at the unforgiving glint in Minhyun’s eyes. “I don’t care how ‘petty’ you think this is, deal with it, or _I_ will. It’s gone on long enough.”

 

The two friends stare at each other, entire conversations conveyed in a glance and Seongwoo sighed his defeat. “Alright,” he grumbled humourlessly, “Hwang Gallyang knows best, who am I to deny him?”

 

Minhyun rolls his eyes and swats at Seongwoo’s head, “Don’t be a brat.”

 

“Yes, mother.”

 

This time Minhyun’s hit connects and Seongwoo’s yelp could be heard clearly all the way on Dongho’s side of the floor.

 

“Brat.”

 

* * *

 

 

“Hey, Chief wants to see you.”

 

Daniel looks up from his computer to nod at Hyunbin, “Thanks hyung, do you know what he wants?”

 

“Probably an eval?” Hyunbin muses, “We usually do those quarterly, but you’re only here for a few months so I’m not sure if you need to sit through them.”

 

At Daniel’s deer in headlights look, Hyunbin laughs, “Don’t worry about it too much, Seongwoo is probably just going to ask you a few questions about how you’ve liked it here so far and what not. It’s pretty chill, I swear.”

 

“Sometimes, I think we’re talking about two completely different people,” Daniel grumbles, saving his file and then standing up with a stretch.

 

Hyunbin just shakes his head and waves Daniel on his way. He still remembers the incredulous look Daniel had given him that time he asked how Hyunbin gets away with addressing Seongwoo so informally; at being told that Seongwoo wasn’t one for formalities, his disbelief had been palpable and nothing Hyunbin could say seemed to convince Daniel.

 

“You’d think three months later, those two would warm up to each other,” Youngmin remarks, leaning back in his chair and not even trying to pretend that he wasn’t eavesdropping.

 

Hyunbin snorts, “You’d think. It sucks though, Chief is great but everyone keeps seeing the worse in him because of those stupid rumours.”

 

Youngmin also sighs heavily at the reminder, “Tell me about it, but hey, Minhyun-ssi was over earlier and I’m pretty sure he’s putting his foot down about Seongwoo not retaliating over the rumours.”

 

“Oooh,” Hyunbin perks up at the mention of one of his favourite people, “I kind of want to see that though. Minhyun hyung actually angry is something I haven’t witnessed yet.”

 

“It’s not something you want to see,” Youngmin warned, shivering slightly at the reminder, “Believe me. I think the last time he really lost is was when some corporate spy infiltrated the company to try and steal Dongho-ssi from us, and decided that starting a slander campaign here so he would no longer felt welcome would be a great idea. He teamed up with a couple of other department heads and I’m pretty sure we’re never going to see that guy in the industry again in this lifetime.”

 

If anything, Youngmin’s words only seem to have increased Hyunbin’s admiration and eagerness. “Whatever, don’t say I didn’t warn you. Just hope he’s never mad at you.”

 

* * *

 

 

Daniel knocked on Seongwoo’s door, waiting for a quiet ‘Come in’ before easing the door open gingerly. “You wanted to see me?”

 

He takes a seat when Seongwoo gestures to the chair in front of him silently, a mild expression on his face. “So, Kang Daniel-ssi,” he starts off unexpectedly formal, “How has your time with StoneTree been so far?”

 

Daniel schools his expression into something bland and swallows down his complaints. “It’s been good so far, I’ve learned a lot from the team,” he keeps his answers short and concise, not trusting himself to hold his tongue around Seongwoo.

 

“And how’re you liking the team so far?”

 

 _The team is great, I just don’t know how someone like you is considered a leader,_ he thinks to himself, holding onto his smile, _Look at you in a cushy office now when there are more deserving candidates, I bet you did suck someone’s dick for the spot._ “The team has been great, the sunbaes have been very attentive and they’ve taught me a lot.”

 

 _Unlike you_.

 

Seongwoo is silent for a moment, scribbling something down on the paper in front of him before looking up. For a split-second, Daniel feels his breath catch in his throat at the piercing gaze; he can’t recall the last time he’s actually made eye-contact with his supervisor. Seongwoo’s gaze is arresting, as if he’s compelling Daniel not to look away so that he can divine all the secrets in his soul, and Daniel fights with himself not to look away first.

 

“I’m glad you’re enjoying the team so far. Now tell me, what is it that you want?”

 

Daniel blinks in surprise, a small part of him mourns his lost in their impromptu staring contest, “Pardon?”

 

His supervisor sighs heavily as if Daniel had asked yet another stupid question, “Which areas of design are you drawn to? What projects are you interested in assisting with? _What do you want to get out of your internship here, Mr. Kang_?”

 

He was stumped, he hasn’t really thought about what he wanted to assist with, too busy trying to pick up all the things the team was teaching him and survive all the tasks Seongwoo threw at him without explanation. “I, I haven’t really thought about it,” he admits, feeling his shoulder droop under Seongwoo’s judging eyes.

 

“Well then you’d best start think about it, Mr. Kang.” Seongwoo continues evenly, finally looking away from Daniel and he feels like he can breathe again, “You’re almost half-way through your time here with us. StoneTree can give you the tools, but you have to know how to build yourself up. Ultimately it is your growth and you need to take responsibility for it. Take a few days to think it over and then let me know which type of projects you want to pursue. I’ll see what I can do.”

 

Daniel stands and bows at the silent dismissal, lost in thought. That had not been what he was expecting. He had expected Seongwoo to be cutting and snide, to take the opportunity to make him feel inadequate and ashamed under the guise of an ‘evaluation’. Instead, he had been cool, clinical even, had dropped this question into Daniel’s lap without so much of a by your leave, and then sent Daniel on his merry way.

 

It was like another one of those dreaded, ‘So what are you planning to do with that degree when you graduate?’ questions his parents and every aunt or uncle he talks to lately likes to bring up. Truth is, he doesn’t know. Daniel knows he likes designing things, like architecture, likes the possibility of bringing his creations for life, but there’s no real part of the industry that calls to him.

 

He’s looked around and seen his sunbaes all having their specialities, from Hyunbin who loves designing furniture with multiple functions to Youngmin who could wax poetic about ergonomic office space for hours. Jihoon takes interior design of urban apartments seriously like nobody’s business, and even Daehwi has his goal of promoting accessibility and he’s two years younger than Daniel. Daniel who dabbles in this and that, but hasn’t found anything that he’s invested in.

 

He wonders for a moment what Seongwoo’s passion is because he’s been working under the man for three months now and doesn’t actually have a clue what works he has to his name. Probably nothing too impressive, Daniel thinks to himself, tapping on the edge of his screen absently.

 

Daniel ends up taking the question to his friends and seniors who are more than happy to let him pick their brains for something to do. It’s only at the end of the week that he realizes what he really wants is to be one of those great names, he wants a pièce de résistance to call his own. Like OSW, the mysterious genius architect that swept into the industry as the mastermind behind the Floating Islands and the sleek expansion to the National Museum that was a work of art in itself, and who had disappeared from the industry almost five years ago.

 

Seongwoo gives no outward reaction once he hears of Daniel’s rather ambitious declaration, only looked through him for a few moments before mumbling more under his breath than to Daniel that he had a long way to go to get there.

 

He sends Daniel to HR with a note and two days later, Daniel finds himself an attachment to Dongho sunbae-nim’s team for a new project, a resort to be built on Jeju-do. It’s like Seongwoo had taken the opportunity to wash his hands of Daniel under the pretext of Dongho’s project being more in-line with Daniel’s future career goals. Daehwi, of course, is beyond excited that Daniel gets to work with him now.

 

It’s a jarring switch and, to his surprise, Daniel chaffs under Dongho’s thumb for the first month or so.

 

And it wasn’t just because it was a new team and him missing his old mentors. Dongho is exacting and demanding when it comes to work. It’s odd having to get all his work checked over thrice, to be micro-managed and directed to work on specific, minute tasks, to be asked to justify all his decisions and drilled on his reasoning for doing something.

 

Seongwoo had never done more than check in on his progress once or twice, nudging him in the direction of different team members to consult their expertise as needed. After being left to his own devices most of the time, being moulded to suit another person’s requirements was uncomfortable to say the least.

 

Daniel has to catch himself in an effort not to talk back to his seniors several times, because while Youngmin or Hyunbin would let Daniel protest, would debate the merits of his ideas with him and then explain to him why something should be done a different way, Daniel caught the distinct impression that it would not be appreciated on his new team. Either way, he adapts and even though he misses his old dynamic with his team, working on the project is an eye-opener. Studying about the process was one thing, being a part of it and getting to sit in on negotiations and talks with the client and different suppliers were a novel experience.

 

When his internship comes to an end, Dongho sunbae presents him with an offer to stay with StoneTree as a part of his team given that he’s already working on the resort project with them and Daniel takes it.

 

He breaks the news to his family who are sad but not that surprised that he’s moving to Seoul permanently for his career. He graduates and his mother cries twice: once when he accepts his diploma, and once when she helps him pack up his room to send to Seoul. He keeps in contact with Daehwi and Jinyoung after the younger men’s internships end, and Daniel wouldn’t be surprised if they ended up being his co-workers in a year or two when they graduate.

 

The members of Dongho’s team seem less like intimidating strangers now, and something closer to friends, though Daniel still feels more attached to Hyunbin, Youngmin, and Jihoon. He spends lunch break with them now that Daehwi and Jinyoung are no longer with the company and his old team members welcome him with open arms. It’s nice and familiar, and being on mostly even footing with them now lets Daniel shed the last of his reservations.

 

He has almost no interactions with Seongwoo now beyond sometimes ending up in the elevator at the same time, or passing each other in the service area when grabbing a coffee. Daniel would never claim to like the other man, honestly he loves his old team but working with Seongwoo specifically would probably drive him insane, but for the most part he’s put Seongwoo, his holier than thou attitude, and sleezy ways out of his mind.

 

Or he did until Seongwoo and Dongho’s teams are put on a project together.

 

Sitting in the conference room opposite of Seongwoo’s team is jarring, but not quite as jarring as the new face seated next to Seongwoo. The new boy is tall and obviously younger than everyone else in the room, with large wire frames perched on a pert nose in front of wide sleepy eyes. He stays silent for the entire meeting as Seongwoo and Daniel explain that their company has been asked to design and build the new offices for SM Entertainment who are planning on moving locations in a year and a half.

 

The SM representative goes back and forth with Dongho and Seongwoo, the two project managers firing off answers to questions before most of their teams could even formulate a response, and asking for specifics Daniel would never have even thought to ask. It’s the first time Daniel has seen Seongwoo this intense, this focused, and suddenly he’s reminded that his former supervisor was a licensed architect with almost ten years of experience. He forgets because Seongwoo looks young for his age and he’s never really lorded his experience over the team members. It’s humbling to sit in a room with him and Dongho sunbae in clear control of the situation, the two working with each other with practised ease.

 

The meeting ends after two hours, adjourned with an appointment to meet in a month to provide the preliminary outlines and blueprints. Daniel stands, ready to shake out the numbness in his legs from sitting properly for so long when something catches his eye. The new addition to the team is almost plastered against Seongwoo’s side, reading the notes the older man made with his chin propped on Seongwoo’s shoulder.

 

To Daniel’s surprise, the boy seems to be barraging Seongwoo with questions and Seongwoo just _answers him_ , no condescending tone or disbelieving looks, he doesn’t even shove the boy out of his personal space. Just sits there and patiently explains everything with a fond look on his face Daniel’s never seen before, ruffling the other’s hair at the end when they finally manage to pack up to leave between all of the boy’s questions.

 

Daniel isn’t even aware that he’s been standing there staring at them until Jihoon sidles up next to him and nudges him in the side. “Come on, you’re eating lunch with us today, right?”

 

“Who’s that?” Daniel blurts out.

 

Jihoon looks at him with raised brows but Daniel’s doesn’t see, eyes still riveted to where the tall youth had claimed Seongwoo’s arm for himself.

 

“That’s Guanlin, he’s a new hire, Chief is mentoring him.”

 

The now named Guanlin was sticking much closer to Seongwoo that Daniel had seen anyone but the man’s best friend or passing conquests do, their proximity seeming to be more than was just friendly, and oh. _Oh._

 

He can feel the bile rising in the back of his throat, disgust welling up at the thought that Seongwoo would stoop so low as to prey on the new boy, to lure him in with kind eyes and soft smiles when the other was too young to know any better. He wants to throw up, wants to warn the younger man that he’s just being fooled and set up for heartbreak, wants to march over there and scream at Seongwoo for being so depraved –

 

“Daniel?” Jihoon repeats for the fourth time, a worried frown marring his pretty face, “You okay man?”

 

“Yeah,” Daniels swallows heavily, taking a shuddering breath, “I’m fine. Just, you guys are keeping an eye on the new kid, right?”

 

Jihoon looks at him quizzically, “Yeah? Of course we are, he’s a good kid.”

 

“Good,” Daniel watches as the pair disappears around a corner, Guanlin still beaming up at Seongwoo, unsuspecting, “He looks…innocent. Better look out for him.”

 

* * *

 

 It doesn’t seem like his warning works. Every time he sees the other team, it seems like Seongwoo is still working his magic on Guanlin who is forever hanging off of the older man, staring up at him adoringly and laughing at everything he says as if it’s the funniest thing ever.

 

Daniel doesn’t know what to do, it’s not like he can exactly just openly air his accusations, especially since none of his friends seem to have realized Seongwoo’s façade is exactly just that, a façade. From what Daniel can see though, it’s not as if Seongwoo ever initiates contact with Guanlin beyond a ruffle of his hair or a pat on his shoulder, innocent touches. It’s Guanlin who takes every opportunity to drape himself over Seongwoo’s back, to hold an arm hostage, or press himself against Seongwoo’s side. But Seongwoo never protests, never does anything to discourage it, just gives Guanlin that fond smile again that only encourages the poor boy’s false hopes.

 

Daniel isn’t exactly sure when and how he finally snaps, but when he sees Guanlin snake an arm around Seongwoo’s waist comfortably during a quick meeting one afternoon, he follows Seongwoo into the records room when he gets up a few moments afterwards.

 

“I know what you’re doing,” he ground out, jaw clenched and eyes blazing.

 

Seongwoo pauses and puts the file back, turning to face Daniel in the enclosed space with a raised eyebrow. As always he’s well put together; the tailoring of his clothes only emphasizes his long limbs and trim waistline. His skin is flawless, not a wrinkle or laugh line in sight, he’s more handsome than he has a right to be and Daniel can see how Guanlin and so many before him could fall into the trap of those enigmatic eyes.

 

“I beg your pardon?”

 

Daniel ignores how the small hairs at the base of his neck rises at that velvet voice and warning tone, “You play around with people all the time and, whatever, they should know better. But preying on a kid? That’s just sick.”

 

Seongwoo stares him down, something flits behind his eyes before it’s gone and he’s taking one step and then another towards Daniel until they’re face to face, the slightest sliver of space between their chests. Daniel refuses to back down, standing his ground and using the scant centimetres he has over the other man to his advantage.

 

“I’d be careful of the accusations that you’re flinging around here, Mr. Kang. You may be seeking to besmirch my reputation, but I will not tolerate you dragging other people into this.”

 

Daniel shudders at Seongwoo’s hot breath fanning across his ear as the other man leans in to deliver his warning. Seongwoo moves to push past him and exit the room but Daniel grabs him, spinning the other man around and slamming him against one of the cabinets, boxing him in, heart thudding from the sudden rush of adrenaline. “You’re the one who shouldn’t be tolerated,” he hisses in Seongwoo’s face, “Don’t think you can hide all the despicable things you did to get to where you are now.”

 

Something dangerous flashes across Seongwoo’s face and Daniel falters; in that split second Seongwoo shoves the broader man away from him and glares, spots of colour high on his cheeks.

 

“Stop spouting nonsense,” he demands, jabbing a finger into Daniel’s chest hard enough to bruise, “I have worked hard to get to my position today, and I don’t need some jumped up whelp telling me otherwise.”

 

His indignant expression shouldn’t draw Daniel’s eye the way that is does, but he’s can’t help himself from dragging his eyes down Seongwoo’s face to his heaving chest. There’s a distinct sense of satisfaction pooling in his gut knowing that he was the one who did this. That he was the one to upset the usually cool and unaffected Ong Seongwoo, that it now Seongwoo _had_ to look at him, had to pay attention to Daniel’s words.

 

“Oh, I bet you worked hard,” he finds himself jeering, every ugly thought and word bubbling up from his chest and spilling out of his lips, “Hard on your knees maybe. That’s how you got that promotion over the other team leaders, wasn’t it? Sucking cock for that Project Manager title.”

 

Seongwoo’s shoving him hard before he can go on, hard enough to send Daniel stumbling backwards until his back his the door, and then Seongwoo is right in his face, cheeks flushed with anger. His normally unflappable demeanour completely thrown out the window and Daniel could almost purr in delight.

 

“You shut your mouth,” Seongwoo growls and this close Daniel can taste the scorn on his words, can smell the subtle notes of sandalwood in his cologne.

 

He gulps, pressing back against Seongwoo’s lithe body, suddenly conscious of how much slighter the older man was compared to Daniel’s broad frame. “Make me,” he challenges, eyes drawn to shiny red and spit-slick lips when Seongwoo licks his lower lip, a habitual nervous gesture.

 

Seongwoo’s lips twist as he sees where Daniel’s gaze is and he sneers, “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

 

In a burst of strength that Daniel would not have expected, Seongwoo steps back leaving Daniel bereft of his presence and rips him away from the door before yanking it open and storming out, disgusted. Daniel is left standing alone in the room, breathing hard as the honey sweet taste of victory sours, vestiges of crumbling triumph heavy on his tongue.

 

* * *

 

After that, tensions between Daniel and Seongwoo only rise, with Daniel glaring at Seongwoo across meeting rooms while Seongwoo refuses to so much as look in his direction. The older man doesn’t seem to be putting an end to whatever dalliance he has with Guanlin as the younger boy remains almost permanently attached to the older man’s side.

 

Though Daniel keeps awaiting some type of formal reprimand or complaint filed by Seongwoo regarding their confrontation in the filing room, nothing comes. Instead, he’s left with impersonal glances and dispassionate instructions, while Seongwoo showers Guanlin with affection. It gets to the point where every time Daniel spots Seongwoo brush his hand through Guanlin’s hair, he swears he sees red.

 

His growing animosity towards the other doesn’t go unnoticed, and after Daniel’s rather hostile answer to Seongwoo’s request for him to handle a certain part of the design of the underground parking lot in front of several witnesses, he’s called into Dongho’s office. His supervisor gives him an even stare before sighing at the mulish expression on Daniel’s face.

 

“Look, I don’t know what your problem is Seongwoo is, but this has got to stop. I know you two never got that well during your internship, but this is getting to be unprofessional. The last thing we need is to our client to witness this petty in fighting.”

 

“I’m not the problem, he’s the one without morals here!” Daniel finally explodes.

 

“What are you talking about?”

 

Daniel clamps his mouth shut, not wanting to say his suspicions out loud. Dongho scrutinizes him with a practised eye in the tense silence before groaning and running a tired hand over his face.

 

“Is this about the rumours?”

 

The slight flinch Daniel can’t suppress gives him away and Dongho sighs again, heavier than the last. “Look, I don’t want to know exactly what you heard about Seongwoo, but they’re not true. We’re taking care of it.”

 

Dongho takes in the stubborn set to Daniel’s jaw and decides to save himself the trouble; from the time he’s worked with Daniel, he’s come to find that the agreeable young man could be ridiculously stubborn at times. “Talk to Seongwoo and _listen_ to him. Or talk to Hyunbin and Youngmin and the others. I promise you none of those things are true.”

 

Daniel nods jerkily, having no intention to talk to Seongwoo at all and pauses for a moment to confirm he’s been dismissed before striding out of the office. He’s beyond frustrated that no one is taking his side, and without Daehwi and Jinyoung here, there’s no one who will listen to him rant without judging.

 

Daehwi and Jinyoung, that’s who he needs right now. He pulls out his phone and shoots off a message to their group chat, asking the two younger boys to come over and hang out with him tonight. He gets two affirmatives, with Daehwi asking what they should eat and Jinyoung offering to buy chicken.

 

Taking a deep breath, Daniel strides back to his desk, pasting on a forced smile when he passes by Seongwoo who doesn’t acknowledge his greeting, Guanlin close by his side. Daniel clenches his fist so tightly his nails break skin.

 

Tonight. He’ll make a plan to expose this creep tonight.

 

* * *

 

 

“Ah, but hyung,” Jinyoung asks around a piece of chicken, “Are you sure?”

 

“I’m telling you, Jinyoung-ah! He’s _always_ touching and clinging to Seongwoo!” Daniel declares, slamming his beer onto the table and gesticulating wildly with a half-eaten drumstick as he works himself into his third rant of the night, “In public, in front of everyone. And Seongwoo just _lets_ him, he’ll flash him that stupid look like he actually cares and ruffle his hair. You can’t tell me it’s normal; he was never that way with me. He never even gave me a look that could pass for friendly, but with that kid, he’s all-”

 

“Hyung,” Daehwi blurts out, “Are you jealous?”

 

“What?!” Daniel chokes on his spit, “What on earth are you talking about?”

 

Daehwi flushes and stammers out a laugh. “Umm, it’s just,” he scoots behind Jinyoung as if using the other boy for protection, “It sounds more like you’re upset Guanlin is clinging to him and Seongwoo allows it, than you are upset about Seongwoo ‘preying’ on him.”

 

Daniel stares at him and Daehwi squeaks, hiding behind Jinyoung. Daniel says nothing though, so Daehwi timidly adds another suggestion. “Or, or that you’re jealous of Seongwoo treating Guanlin so well when he was never that way with you.”

 

The older man laughs weakly, “That’s ridiculous, why would I want Ong Seongwoo to be nice to me.”

 

As if sensing a weakness, Daehwi only hesitates for a split-second before leaning forward to continue expounding on his theory. “Think about it hyung,” he urges, “When you first started out, you were so determined to prove him wrong and have him acknowledge your skills. Even after you started getting worked up with those rumours, you never stopped working hard and completing every task he gave you, even those things no one expected you to know how to do. Now suddenly this new kid comes crashing in and without even trying has everything you wanted from him.”

 

It’s outlandish, ridiculous, completely unfounded. Daniel opens his mouth to tell Daehwi exactly this only to find that nothing would come out.

 

Daehwi shoots him a sympathetic look filled with tragic understanding and Daniel breathes out heavily from his nose, downing the rest of his beer in one go. The younger wisely lets the topic drop for the rest of the night and Jinyoung is quick to jump in, telling them about a rude customer he ran into during his part-time job.

 

And if Daniel drinks a bit more than he usually would on a work night, no one points it out either.

 

Before he leaves, Daehwi hesitates and tells Jinyoung to wait for him outside a moment, doubling back to lay an understanding hand on Daniel’s forearm.

 

“Hyung, Seongwoo sunbae really isn’t the way that you’re making him out to be,” he holds up a hand to stop Daniel when he opens his mouth to protest, “Wait, just hear me out. Put those rumours out of your mind and observe sunbae-nim for two weeks. Actually look at how he is with people, how he works, how he is as a person and form your own _unbiased_ opinion. If at the end you _still_ find him to be a despicable person with, uh, immoral philandering ways, then I promise I’ll back you and we can take your concerns to Dongho sunbae-nim together, okay?”

 

The sight of Daehwi’s pleading look stops Daniel from dismissing his plea immediately and he nods begrudgingly.

 

“Thank you,” the younger man breathes, darting forward to give Daniel a quick hug before he runs out the door after Jinyoung.

 

* * *

 

So for the next two weeks, Daniel reluctantly pushes back his snap judgements and forces himself to observe Ong Seongwoo.

 

Ong Seongwoo who is there in the office earlier than most of their team and there later than anyone else.

 

Ong Seongwoo who patiently fields all the questions from the more junior members of their team and explains everything in a concise easy to understand manner. Who seems to almost light up when people take interest and ask questions.

 

Ong Seongwoo who checks up on all the members of his team several times a day, who never sends even the most junior members of their team on petty errands, who fetches his own coffee and even goes out of his way to get coffee for others. He watches as the man wordlessly sets tea on Jihoon’s desk because the younger man doesn’t like coffee and then casually leaves a napkin with a couple of pastries on Hyunbin’s desk for the man who was infamous for forgetting to eat when he gets too into a project.

 

He watches and he sees how even at the times that Seongwoo rejects a team member’s idea, he takes the time to walk them through the entire process step by step so that they would know exactly what it was that they needed to fix, if only they would let him show them. Seongwoo flits around the edges of everyone’s work zones when he’s not buried under work at his own desk, a silent reminder that he was available for advice if they needed it. He watches as Guanlin takes ruthless advantage of it, coming to Seongwoo with scribbled notes and printouts almost hourly, and the fond, almost fatherly look of pride that he wears when Guanlin is able to work out the answer for himself with a few gentle nudges in the right direction.

 

There’s a burning at the base of his stomach and it takes Daniel a moment to place it as regret and shame. He recognizes now that those same times Seongwoo had hovered over his shoulder when he was working, he had been waiting to see if Daniel had any questions, not to judge him. That Seongwoo had always made himself available for Daniel, would have sat there and explained everything to him as patiently to Daniel as he did to Guanlin if only Daniel had swallowed his pride and his little feud and _asked_.

 

He had been waiting for Daniel to find his own way, to figure out what he needed and wanted from Seongwoo, except Daniel stubbornly never had. While the older man had been crabby and unwelcoming of taking on an intern, Daniel also had to admit that his first impression was less than stellar, what with him spacing out and then falling asleep.

 

So now Daniel is left watching him surreptitiously, taking in the serious concentration on his face as he studies their preliminary proposal for the blueprints, hair falling softly into his eyes, glasses he only sometimes wears sliding down the bridge of an elegant nose. He watches as Seongwoo debates key elements of the design with Dongho passionately, gesturing widely, animated and excited in a way Daniel wouldn’t have expected.

 

Seongwoo laughs freely with his team, no, with his friends. He jokes openly with those who need the pick-me-up and is a quiet, supportive presence for others.

 

There’s an uncomfortable clenching in his abdomen when Daniel wonders if he could have ever had that from him, if he could have experienced even part of that easy, charismatic pull the other man seemed to emanate.

 

He doesn’t say anything to Daehwi at the end of the two weeks to confirm his suspicions, but his friend shoots him a knowing look when Daniel drops the subject of Seongwoo’s alleged depravity. Daniel throws himself into his job, determined now more than ever to complete all his assigned tasks flawlessly.

 

And it’s stupid and irritating to realize that all the little ways Seongwoo’s lack of direct instruction before had trained him to work more independently. He doesn’t flounder in-between tasks, doesn’t _need_ the clear-cut step by step instructions Dongho provides, doesn’t need to ask people where certain information is because he knows how and where to find it himself. Every time he’s praised for taking initiative and being self-sufficient feels like swallowing a bitter pill.

 

Everything is going along steadily for the project, all is well and calm in the company, there are no wild rumours flying anymore and then suddenly the gossip mill goes wild, buzzing with all the intensity of a kicked hornet’s nest.

 

Everywhere around him, people are whispering about Han Jongyeon being fired.

 

How he had been the one spreading malicious rumours about Ong Seongwoo, had had an unhealthy, groundless grudge against Seongwoo and followed him from company to company.

 

How they had finally found proof that Jongyeon had stolen Seongwoo’s designs at the previous firm they worked together at and then claimed _Seongwoo_ was the one to steal _his_ work.

 

They spoke of how Han Jongyeon had sabotaged the calculations in one of Seongwoo’s previous designs, causing an accident during the erection of the building that almost cost lives, and how he might be having his licensed stripped because of it. That Seongwoo had left his old company because of the same incident and how Jongyeon still persisted in dogging his steps to StoneTree.

 

Daniel is in a daze, he’s not sure how he ended up in Seongwoo’s office until he’s staring at an empty chair and Seongwoo freezes when he walks in to see Daniel standing there.

 

“Can I help you?” he questions, blank-faced, shoulders tense as if expecting Daniel to start attacking him again.

 

“I’m sorry,” Daniel blurts out, wincing at the clumsy apology.

 

“Come again?” Seongwoo asks, edging around Daniel to stand behind his desk.

 

Daniel swallows his pride and bows until he’s bent ninety degrees and speaking to the floor. “I’m sorry for the things I said before. For the assumptions I made based on rumours. I shouldn’t have said any of those things and you didn’t-you didn’t deserve to be attacked like that.”

 

He keeps his head bowed in the heavy silence and Seongwoo contemplates his apology. His head feels heavy with the weight of Seongwoo’s impending judgement and he dreads the incoming rejection, the dismissal of his words. Daniel startles at the light touch of a hand on his head, wondering if for a second it was wishful thinking, but no, Seongwoo’s fingers really are resting on his hair.

 

He looks up gingerly to see a chagrined smile on Seongwoo’s face as the older man sighs heavily and retracted his hand. Daniel almost wants to chase after that touch, that show of approval and the blossoming warmth it provided to him.

 

“It’s fine, I accept your apology,” Seongwoo responds, laughing lowly at Daniel’s bewildered expression.

 

“It’s _fine_ , Mr. Kang,” he stresses again, “I’m not one to hold grudges. You’re not the only one who was led astray by rumours, and I’m content with the fact that you took the time to come and personally apologize.”

 

“Daniel,” he blurts out, flushing red when Seongwoo shoots him a curious look, “Uh, I mean, you can just call me Daniel.”

 

Seongwoo looks amused but nods his acceptance, “You’ve been working hard these past few weeks, Daniel; keep up the good work and you’ll go far.”

 

Daniel nods, blushing slightly from the praise, the first he’s gotten from Seongwoo. “O-okay,” he stammers, “Uh, I mean, thank you. I’ll continue to work hard.”

 

“See that you do,” Seongwoo graces him with another smile and then tilts his head towards the door, “Now Daniel, I apologize but I have a conference call in five minutes so I do have to ask you to leave if that’s all you needed. If you have any other questions for me, you can come find me later.”

 

“I-uh, yes! Of course, thank you again for, um, accepting my apology, Seongwoo sunbae-nim.”

 

“Think nothing of it,” Seongwoo waves away his concerns, “And Seongwoo is fine. All those honorifics get to be a mouthful, I find.”

 

“C-can I call you hyung then?” Daniel asks and then flushes red at his own forwardness.

 

Seongwoo laughs again as if Daniel had just told a particularly interesting joke and the younger man is entranced for a moment, wondering how he ever thought this man was cold and unfeeling. “If you would like,” he agrees easily, “Now, please be on your way. I’ll see you later, Mr. Kang.”

 

* * *

 

Things are different after that, the tensions between them dissolve. Just as he promised, Seongwoo didn’t hold any grudges against Daniel and Daniel slowly got used to their new dynamic. There’s a certain thrill he gets from Seongwoo’s approval, those small, pleased smiles he gives when Daniel does something particularly well sends warmth pooling in his belly.

 

Daniel does his best to ignore the amused looks his teammates shoot him. The knowing looks in Hyunbin’s eyes and Jihoon’s half-hidden smiles when Daniel brings his completed tasks for Seongwoo to look over instead of Dongho at any chance he gets. He pretends not to see Youngmin’s waggling brows when he spots the way Daniel lights up after getting his hair ruffled in encouragement, or a pat on the back when he’s done well.

 

It’s just a stupid crush, he tells himself, he’s impressed by Seongwoo’s work ethic, his skill and knowledge, and his charming manner. It’s just all of Seongwoo’s virtues suddenly hitting him hard now that Daniel allows himself to appreciate it, the crush will fade with time.

 

Except it doesn’t.

 

Instead Daniel can feel himself getting greedier. He wants more than Seongwoo’s approval, more than head pats and congratulatory thumps on the back.

 

He’s lingering in Seongwoo’s office at every chance that he gets, taking any excuse to visit and glad that the older man never turns him away. He starts bringing Seongwoo coffee or snacks, sharing his favourite gummies, which Seongwoo accepts with a bemused look.

 

He runs into Minhyun more than once in this way and Seongwoo’s friend only shoots him a pitying look before shaking his head and going on his way. It gets to the point where Dongho jokes Daniel might as well be returned to Seongwoo’s team for all the time that he spends with his own.

 

Daniel laughs sheepishly but doesn’t protest, staring at his old desk where Guanlin now sits longingly.

 

Even Daniel has to admit that it’s getting out of hand when he hovers outside of Seongwoo’s office after hours with chocolate in his hands on Valentines Day. Their floor is nearly deserted by this time, it’s close to 9 pm and the lights to Seongwoo’s office are of. Yet Daniel has been standing here wringing his hands and the chocolate wrapper for nearly twenty minutes.

 

After taking a breath to steel himself, he eases the door open quietly and creeps forward to drop the little baggy of chocolates on the desk. To his dismay, there’s a mountain of chocolates already piled in a corner of the desk and Daniel is forced to remember that Seongwoo had many admirers in their company.

 

“What are you doing?” a familiar and well-loved voice calls, flicking on the lights and Daniel spins around to face Seongwoo, hiding the chocolates behind himself guiltily.

 

Seongwoo laughs as Daniel opens and closes his mouth without being able to formulate a response and he walks over to drop the documents in his hands onto his desk.

 

“Were you trying to steal some chocolate?” Seongwoo asks, nodding towards the pile he had amassed throughout the day, “You’re welcome to take some, I can’t finish them and I find most of what they give me too sweet.”

 

“No,” Daniel squeaks out, knuckles clenched white against his own gift.

 

“No?” Seongwoo questions, tilting his head to the side and watching Daniel closely.

 

The younger man had matured well over the last year or so, working reliably and contributing great insight to their project. Seongwoo had been more than happy to see that Daniel seemed to finally have found direction in his life and was no longer wasting the talent that he had. He was motivated and quick to ask questions about what he didn’t understand, taking the initiative numerous times where before he would have waiting for someone to prompt him.

 

He wonders why Daniel might need to steal chocolate when he surely got many gifts and confessions of his own? He was tall, fit, and handsome, quicker to smile than to frown, and kind to those around him. Seongwoo had seen more than one admiring gaze wander over the other man’s form and was embarrassed to admit he had also looked at the younger man with a wandering eye in the summer months when he came in dressed in form fitting polo shirts that highlighted his broad shoulders and defined muscles.

 

Seongwoo watches now as Daniel fidgets nervously before holding out a small cellophane baggy of chocolates with a brilliant blush, face turned away from Seongwoo and eyes fixed on the floor.

 

He stands frozen even as his mind races; Seongwoo doesn’t want to draw the wrong conclusions, but the implications of Daniel’s actions were hard to misread.

 

“Daniel, what…” he trails off when Daniel seems to have made up his mind about something and strides around the desk to stand in front of Seongwoo determinedly, pressing the chocolates into startled hands.

 

Seongwoo accepts them automatically, eyes widening when Daniel clasps his hands around Seongwoo’s and doesn’t let go.

 

“Hyung,” Daniel starts, staring into Seongwoo’s eyes, “Seongwoo hyung. Will you go out with me?”

 

“Daniel,” Seongwoo begins weakly, trying and failing to pull his hands back from Daniel’s stubborn grasp, “this is…”

 

“I know I’m younger and that I can be immature,” the younger man cuts him off, “But I really like you, hyung. Can you give me a chance? Let me prove to you that I’m worthy of your choice?”

 

“That’s not, I’m – Daniel, I’m your supervisor, it’s not appropriate.”

 

“Not directly,” Daniel points out defiantly, “Dongho sunbae is my supervisor, you’re just a superior of mine in the same department.”

 

“I’m much older than you Daniel, you’d be happier with someone closer to your age.”

 

Daniel shakes his head, stubborn. “You’re only seven years older than me hyung, that’s hardly a huge age gap.”

 

“It’s, it’s a conflict of interests. People would think that I’m taking advantage of you.”

 

“No one who knows you would ever think that. And there’s nothing in the company’s code of conduct that prohibits it, I checked. Heck, you made me read the entire thing on my first day here.”

 

“It’s still not appropriate,” Seongwoo protests weakly, stumbling forward when Daniel pulls him closer.

 

“You’re not saying no,” Daniel points out solemnly, drawing the older man against his chest, leaning in slowly to give Seongwoo a chance to draw away, “Tell me no, hyung. Tell me you’re not interested, that you don’t want me, and I’ll go. But don’t tell me we can’t because of some paltry reasons.”

 

Seongwoo’s breath hitches at Daniel’s proximity but he says nothing and the other man swoops in to capture Seongwoo’s mouth with a victorious grin.

 

The older man stands stock-still for a moment before he groans and sinks his hands into Daniel’s hair, angling the younger man’s head to his liking as he opens his mouth to deepen the kiss. Daniel squeaks at the unexpected assault, feeling the heat build pleasantly in the base of his stomach as Seongwoo plunders his mouth.

 

He’s breathless and heavy with want by the time that Seongwoo draws back, breathing heavily, hands slipping down to cradle Daniel’s face between his hands.

 

“I’m a possessive lover,” he murmurs against Daniel’s tingling lips, “I don’t share well and I’ve been told I can be quite _demanding_. If you become mine, I won’t let you go easily. Are you sure you want to take those risks?”

 

Daniel surges forward to kiss Seongwoo again, tired of those teasing butterfly-soft touches, and winds his arms around Seongwoo’s waist.

 

“All of it,” he gasps, delighting in the desire he reads in Seongwoo’s eyes, arching his neck deliberately to offer it to the other man, “I want all of it.”

 

Seongwoo presses forward and begins mouthing at Daniel’s neck, scraping his teeth along tendons and sucking at the sensitive spot behind Daniel’s ear Daniel didn’t even know he had until the younger man was keening, hands pawing desperately at Seongwoo’s back. The older man pushes Daniel to lie down on his desk, shoving the documents and pile of chocolates off the surface to make room for his new lover and hovers over Daniel with a predatory grin.

 

“Well,” he drawls, running his palms teasingly along Daniel’s thighs until his muscles were quivering in anticipation, “Don’t say I never warned you.”

**Author's Note:**

> So that was it! Not quite Emma's epic from yesterday, or Marie's sweet ending, but I hope that was satisfactory?
> 
> If there were any weird spacing/formatting errors, please do excuse me. I actually lost this file and had to recovery it manually, wrestling with the ensuing mess may have left some scars behind.
> 
> Thanks to everyone for taking an interest in this project so far, drop by here or on twitter to let us know what you think. Please give lots of love to the upcoming authors too, we've all been working very hard on this! <3
> 
> And without further ado, here's a teaser for jaeson's one-shot for Day 4:
> 
>  
> 
> _“How did you end up joining the other side then? There’s a big difference between saving lives and killing people, you know?”_
> 
>  
> 
> _Seongwoo laughs and looks at Daniel with a smirk._
> 
>  
> 
> _This time, though, Daniel notices that it’s different. It’s not the usual “ha-I’m-better-than-you” smirk but more of a sardonic one. He leans against his desk, the sound of Seongwoo’s laughter ringing in his ears as he tries to decipher the hidden meaning, tries to find out why Seongwoo seems to be so utterly bitter._
> 
>  
> 
> _It makes something in Daniel break – makes him start to feel something akin to worry in the depth of his stomach._
> 
>  
> 
> _“Who says I joined willingly?”_


End file.
